The night over the Veinwalker Compound was strange.
Not quiet.
Not loud.
Just… heavy.
A thickness hung in the air like unseen mist, as if the world itself understood that sothing had shifted sothing ancient, sothing sealed, sothing not ant to wake.
Khael walked alone through the academy courtyard, hands inside his pockets, lanterns flickering weakly against the breeze. Behind him, the warmth of the group dinner faded. So did the laughter. So did the montary illusion of peace.
All that remained was the truth he could never tell them.
Kaom…
The na pulsed in his mind like a heartbeat.
Kaom, Guardian of the Ancient Shard.
One of the Five Primordial Giants.
One of the beings that the First Era sacrificed empires to seal.
A giant who willingly entombed himself to guard the shard he carried—
A shard that Lucere desperately needed.
Khael exhaled sharply.
This was never supposed to happen this early.
The moon overhead glowed like a dim lantern, clouds drifting across its face like passing mories. Khael walked past a quiet garden where fireflies flickered faintly like dying embers.
Each step felt heavier than the last.
The dragons in his veins stirred, reacting to sothing unseen.
He clenched his fist.
His heartbeat quickened.
Everything he knew from his old world—the manga's plot, the arcs, the villains, the tragedies was crumbling. The story was accelerating. The lines were blurring.
Lucere…
What are you planning now?
He knew the answer.
He had known it from the first ti he saw Lucere's cold blue eyes and the madness hidden beneath loyalty:
Lucere wanted to resurrect Yuna.
The Dragon Knight.
Their master.
Their light.
Their downfall.
Lucere had loved her.
Isen had loved her.
But Lucere's love…
Lucere's love was a wound that never healed.
Khael grit his teeth, stopping in the middle of the stone path.
He looked up at the stars.
"Yuna…" he whispered. "Why does your death still chain the world?"
The night breeze brushed his hair, cool and strangely gentle.
As if answering him.
His footsteps echoed as he entered the dormitory building, lights mostly off except for a few night-cores casting bluish glow through the hallways.
The silence pressed around him no chatter, no footsteps, no dogs barking, no Ceyla teasing him for forgetting dinner again.
Just stillness.
Khael walked down the hall, passing open doors, dim corridors, and the faint scent of cleaning herbs. When he reached his room, he rested his hand against the doorknob…
But didn't turn it.
Not yet.
Because if he entered his room right now, he feared he'd feel even more suffocated. More trapped inside his own thoughts.
Instead, he leaned against the wall beside the door and slid to a sit.
His breath left him in a slow exhale.
He pressed his palm to his forehead.
If Lucere wants to resurrect Yuna…
He must reawaken the Dragon of Emotion.
The only dragon whose essence could ignite a soul that was long gone.
And to awaken that dragon, Lucere must gather fragnts of its power.
Fragnts hidden in shards.
Shards guarded by giants.
Kaom!
The immovable protector.
The last loyal sentinel of the Dragon Knight's era.
Khael's jaw tightened.
That giant didn't fall in battle.
He willingly sealed himself because he knew the world wasn't ready.
He knew what awakening him would an.
Kaom wasn't evil.
He wasn't a calamity.
He was a guardian.
A giant who watched the First Era die in flas and chose to disappear with the shard.
Khael rubbed his eyes, exhausted. The dragon energy inside his core stirred like a restless tide, sensing his stress.
What do I even do now?
He felt like an actor walking on shattered glass, every step a risk of cutting the world deeper.
As a reincarnator, he knew too much.
As a Veinwalker, he could say too little.
He looked at his hands, flexing them.
"I can't let Lucere awaken Kaom," he whispered. "Because the mont Kaom stirs… the world changes."
Kaom was a fixed point in destiny.
A guardian turned trigger.
If awakened, three things would follow:
The Shard would be exposed.
The Dragon of Emotion would stir in the sealed.
Yuna's soul fragnt still lingering in the Echo Abyss would resonate.
That would be enough for Lucere.
Enough for him to bring back the one he loved.
Even if it ant destroying the world.
Khael slamd his fist against the floor.
"Tch…"
For a brief mont, he let his frustration spill.
Then his breathing slowed.
His heartbeat steadied.
And the dragon inside him cald.
Khael's mind drifted to the manga panels he rembered from his old life.
Kaen Eclipse Next Arc : The Guardian's Cry
Lucere's silhouette standing atop a crumbling shrine.
Kaom rising from the earth like a dark mountain awakening.
The world trembling under his roar.
The sky cracking with emotional energy.
The Dragon of Emotion returning.
And Yuna…
Beautiful, powerful, tragic Yuna…
She appeared only as an Echo.
Not fully revived.
Not fully gone.
And Lucere
The panel burned into Khael's mory:
Lucere kneeling in tears… holding the fragnt of her face in his shaking hands.
He wasn't evil.
Just broken.
But his actions would doom millions.
Khael whispered into the empty hallway:
"I won't let your tragedy repeat."
His eyes hardened.
"I won't let Kaom rise."
The dorm lights humd faintly, the only sound in the emptiness.
Khael pushed himself to his feet and entered his room.
Inside the Dorm Room
His room was dim, simple: a bed, a small table, so training gear, and a window overlooking the courtyard. Moonlight spilled across the floor like silver water.
Khael sat on the edge of his bed.
All his thoughts pointed to one truth:
Lucere's next target is Kaom's Tomb.
He ran a hand through his hair.
But where is it?
In the manga, Kaom's location was revealed in a later arc, hidden by layers of misdirection. But now? The tiline was warped. Lucere was acting earlier, faster more desperate.
That ant Khael's knowledge was no longer perfect.
And that scared him.
He grabbed a small notebook he kept hidden beneath his mattress. A recreated version of the manga's major events, as he rembered them. Dates, arcs, items, locations whatever he could salvage from mory.
He flipped through the pages.
Most matched the world so far.
So were already diverging.
Then he reached the page marked:
GIANT — KAOM
Guardian of the Emotional Shard.
Self-sealed in the Tomb of Stillness.
Location: Unknown.
Defeat thod: None.
Negotiation possible.
Threat Level: Non-hostile unless provoked.
Khael stared at the notes.
Kaom wasn't a beast.
He wasn't a monster.
He was a protector.
Lucere wouldn't fight Kaom
Lucere would convince him.
And Kaom…
Kaom would listen.
Because Kaom is devoted to the dragon knight.
A chill ran down Khael's spine.
This wasn't a fight of strength.
This was a fight of hearts.
And Lucere…
Lucere's heart was stronger, sharper, more determined than steel.
Khael closed the notebook, breath trembling.
"I need to find Kaom first."
But how?
He closed his eyes.
Let his dragon affinity stir.
Let his senses stretch into the Echo Vein.
There
faint
a pulse.
A distant emotional tremor.
Ancient.
Dormant.
Sorrowful.
Like a giant heartbeat sleeping beneath layers of stone and history.
Khael's eyes widened.
He whispered the word that surfaced in his mind:
"…North."
Kaom slept in the Northern Tearfall Range.
A place forbidden.
A place where veinwalkers avoid
A place where the world felt thin.
"Then I have to get there." Khael breathed.
He stood.
Determination sparked like a fla in his chest.
"I'll reach Kaom before Lucere does."
He tightened his fists.
"Even if I have to walk into a forgotten era myself."
The dragon inside him roared softly.
A vow.
A promise.
Khael, staring out the window toward the moonlit north, whispered:
"Kaom…
Guardian of the shard…
I'm coming."
"And I won't let the world break for your sake again."
To be continue
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